Lost Gold of the Dark Ages by Caroline Alexander

Author:Caroline Alexander [Alexander, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0884-3
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2011-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

CONVERSIONS

As pagan Anglo-Saxons moved into Britain after the Romans, Celtic Christians retreated westward or were absorbed into the invaders’ Germanic culture. It was only with the advent of Christian missionaries, primarily monks from Ireland and the Continent, that the heart of England became Christian again. Thanks to the efforts of a number of strong and enlightened churchmen, many of whom were sainted, the island was converted peacefully.

St. Patrick was born about 387 to a Roman Christian family in Britain, but as a teen he was carried off to Ireland as a slave. Eventually he escaped and made his way to France, where he became a priest. Patrick returned to Britain to fight heresy and in 433 received the blessing of the pope in Rome to go to Ireland to convert the pagans. His arrival was marked by miracles, but the Irish did not begin to convert until an Easter fire that Patrick lit near the royal hill of Tara could not be extinguished.

Since Ireland converted before Anglo-Saxon England, Irish missionaries were instrumental in many English conversions. St. Aidan was an Irish bishop who went to Iona as a monk around 630. In 635 the king of Northumbria summoned Aidan to the island of Lindisfarne, where he established a monastery similar to Iona. Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, educated religious men, produced bishops and missionaries, and founded churches across northern England.

St. Theodore of Tarsus from Asia Minor was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668 at the age of 66. When he arrived in England for the first time a year later, he changed the English Church forever. Theodore’s genius was management and teaching. He toured the English dioceses and redistricted them or founded new ones based on what served the religious population best. He consecrated more bishops and established a school in Canterbury—the King’s School, now the oldest in England—that taught Christians of both Roman and Celtic traditions. Much of his redistricting remains intact to this day.

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